The Obsidian Spire

The Forgotten Temple

Campaign Date: 1st day of Sixthmoth, 1,102nd year after the Founding of Nerath

In the Valley of the Magi, the heroes learn through the recovered Orb of Osmosis, that the Prime Magus, the eladrin Andirus, agreed to build the arcane vault found in the Keep on the Borderlands, and gave a key to the Lord Warden Rumis Tuk. The heroes return to the keep to see if they can determine more about this key.

Upon arriving they find that Keller arrived recently from his mission to scout out gnoll attacks in the borderlands, and claimed that his men were killed and that only he survived. The group also finds the Arcane Advisor, Threnval, and Keller are gone from the keep, having left on an unknown task. The group takes this opportunity to use Threnval’s library and find a hidden panel containing the damaged Orb of Osmosis that they left in the dwarf mine and wonder why Threnval had recovered and repaired this. They also learn that Threnval recently visited the keep’s necropolis in the dead of night.

The group go to the necropolis and find that Threnval sought out Lord Warden Rumis Tuk’s tomb. However, before they could investigate, a necromantic rift opened up in the necropolis, animating the corpses within as skeletons and bringing forth a dragonborn undead that claims to have brought the vile item that corrupted him to the keep and that he was cursed to do battle with the “Eternal Champions” because of the item, which was revealed earlier to the an obsidian skull. The heroes attempt to fight the undead but find that the Shadowfell rift rises them as quickly as they are destroyed. They decide to seek out the source of the rift in the crypts below the graveyard and try to close it. Making their way through the graveyard, battling skeletons and the undead dragonborn, the group make it to the crypt entrance, find the rift and close it.

Inside the crypt they find the sarcophagus of Rumis Tuk, but learn that there was no body to bury and that his if the key to the arcane vault was given to him, it was not buried with him. They do find a journal that explains that the Lord Warden was driven mad by visions that compelled him to take his arcane advisor and bordermen to a forgotten temple within a swamp to destroy the source of the visions. The jounal had a teleportation circle formula drawn out to take the Lord Warden to the temple. The group then go back to the keep and find that Threnval’s teleportation circle has recently been used. They reactivate it and arrive at the forgotten temple in the swamps, finding nothing but a ruined temple, insects and dead lizardfolk bodies lying about. Within the temple, they find steps leading down into the lower chambers where they find two tombs; one sealed. In the chamber they find the skeletal remains of a Lord Warden and in the unsealed tomb they are attacked by vampires – one of which is Threnval!

During the battle, Threnval reveals that “the Master” turned him and that he has left to seek out the “Vile Reliquary.” Regrettably, they destroy Threnval and the vampires and find that the skeleton does not have the key.

The group open the sealed tomb and find the essense of a destroyed archangel named Raziel, who served the demigod Sola during the War of Darkness over 1000 years ago. The angel confirms that the heroes are the “Eternal Champions of Sola”, but doesn’t explain what that means. It says that the tomb across the hall belongs to one of the Lords of Malice – servants to the Dark Lord Necreus during the War of Darkness. This one was named Satheras, the father of vampires. During the last battle of the war, Sola was defeated by Necreus and taken to his Obsidian Spire. There, she used the last of her power to take Necreus’ phlyactery, the Obsidian Skull, and give it to her angel Raziel to destroy. Raziel took the skull and fled the spire, but was followed by Satheras. They did battle and Raziel managed to incapacitate the vampire lord, but was mortally wounded himself. A human priest that witnessed the battle took the skull from Raziel and promised to keep it hidden. The priest built the tombs and built a temple above them to keep both the remains of Satheras and Raziel hidden from the world above. The angel warns the Eternal Champions that if Satheras was restored, he will stop at nothing to return the skull to his master to free him from his prison in the Obsidian Spire. The angel also said the Eternal Champions only hope in defeating the powerful vampire is to seek out the holy blade Dawnbringer in the Lost Vale.